Friday, October 16, 2020

NATO Secretary-General Says The First Lien Of Defense Must Be Strong Societies

 
 
Defense One: A 21st-Century Reality Is Dawning on NATO 

In today’s security environment, non-kinetic threats pose as grave a danger as kinetic ones. 

Last week, Jens Stoltenberg delivered a remarkable speech in Bratislava. It could have been one of the speeches one so often hears from officials at security conferences, one about how the West should buy more tankers and fighter jets so as to better deter Russia. Instead, NATO’s Secretary-General spoke about ports, electricity grids, and telecommunications. 

“Our militaries cannot be strong if our societies are weak, so our first line of defence must be strong societies,” he told the Globsec audience. 

Yes! NATO has realized that national security threats come in many guises. The realization is to be saluted. It will make the lives of the hundreds of millions of people who live on NATO territory more secure – and it will make the alliance more relevant. 

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WNU Editor: Lofty words from the NATO Secretary General, but the problem is that many member states within NATO are not backing it with the promises that they have made to support the organization .... financial support and defense spending targets being the biggest one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

NATO also needs shared values among its many members and that doesn’t exist. USA doesn’t share the values of Germany and that cripples the alliances future. Germany is compromised by Russian energy interest with a former chancellor on Putin’s payroll. Too many NATO countries openly opposed candidate Trump, then President Trump despite the fact he reversed key Obama actions weakening NATO.